


your skin, like diamonds; your smile, the sun

by tostitos



Series: twt prompts [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Developing Relationship, Fae & Fairies, Fluff, M/M, Opposites Attract, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Royalty, but cute, in a vague sense, this is...not great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25280377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos
Summary: In his months of venturing to this river, he’s never come across anyone from either side—Except the boy sitting on the bank upstream with hair the color of the berries in Youngho’s palm and whose skin always seems to be covered in glittering, silver fairy dust.(Youngho's handler, Taeil, is surely tired of him skipping out, but Youngho knows he has someone waiting for him at the river at the border)
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Series: twt prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871554
Comments: 4
Kudos: 85





	your skin, like diamonds; your smile, the sun

**Author's Note:**

> written for @ana_shawolzen on twt cuz i needed to write something and they wanted to johndo as fairies. and i'm too lazy to cut it up and post it as a twt thread ew
> 
> for someone who read almost every ya fantasy novel in the library as a teen, this was very unfamiliar for me lmao i don't actually like it that much but i tried my best

The grass, long and thin, sways in the light, mid-spring breeze, almost as if it is dancing. It parts naturally in his presence, each blade curling in like a proper bow as he cuts through the small glade in the middle of the forest just outside the limits of the gates. He skips over a patch of violet primrose and follows the line of bright, yellow tickseed toward where the tree line begins once more on the other side.

It’s a beautiful day.

“Prince Youngho?”

He turns over his shoulder, the wispy strands of midnight that have slipped from the band holding the rest of his hair in a loose bun whipping across his face. He brushes the wild locks behind his ear, leaving his vision open to spot a head of hair as red as the waking sun appearing across the glade. Grinning wide, he picks up pace to race to the cover of the forest.

Quite a beautiful day to run away in plain sight.

“Prince Youngho!”

Pushing off on his toes, Youngho lets the breeze catch on his wings as they carry him backward towards the trees. He waggles his fingers teasingly at his handler, cackling when the older man tries to wade in the tall grass and gets caught in the blades that are, in this moment, solely loyal to Youngho.

“Don’t worry yourself, Taeil,” he says. “I will return unharmed!”

“Your Highness, you cannot just leave the kingdom whenever you—“ Taeil huffs as he manages to shake himself free of the troublesome grass.

“Try not to get lost!”

Body warming with magic and fingertips staining with red dust, Youngho finally crosses the glade and disappears into the forest. He casts a glamour behind them, making a maze out of the trees. He knows Taeil will be able to break the spell with some effort, but all Youngho needs is time to finish his escape and he will take every second to his advantage.

For being the capital of Unseelie territory, the Red Kingdom is terribly boring. Especially within the evergreen fortress that is the castle. It’s always etiquette and politics, fake smiles and cold eyes. As though none of those miserable fae have ever smiled before.

Youngho doesn’t hate it, feels the darkness in his veins all the same, but by Gaia does he crave for some excitement. They even haven’t stolen a human child from the mortal realm since he was a teen — more politics that are always in favor of the humans or the Seelies or anyone else but them because _of course_ — and now Donghyuck is of age and remembers nothing of his human upbringing.

Honestly, Youngho has been so struck by boredom that it isn’t mischief he seeks as much as it’s something _different_. And thus, he is skipping out on his tactical magic practice and skipping out on the kingdom, fleeing as far past the gates as his curiosity decides.

Or, well, that’s the lie he likes to tell when he returns to Taeil and his questioning parents at the Evergreen castle.

Because Youngho has not aimlessly wandered the lands in months — not since coming upon the river that flows cold as ice on one side and warm as dwindling embers on the other.

The border between his territory and that of the Seelie Court.

He walks along the river, never crossing it in case the Seelie court has cast spells to alert if one of his court trespasses onto their territory without prior consultation.

If he weren’t royalty or was born with a magic affinity too weak to pick apart the intricacies between light and dark magic, he probably wouldn’t even know he was but a wade in the water away from Seelie territory. Here, in the center of their realm where all the seasons flourish equally, there is nothing but magic to tell them from one another.

Youngho lifts a hand as he passes under a tree and a bundle of ripe berries fall into his palm with a little tug of magic. He inspects them for bruises before picking off one of the tiny, purple berries to put on his tongue. Its sour juices bite his tongue and he makes a face at the tartness.

In his months of venturing to this river, he’s never come across anyone from either side—

Except the boy sitting on the bank upstream with hair the color of the berries in Youngho’s palm and whose skin always seems to be covered in glittering, silver fairy dust. His wings are just as wondrously translucent, unlike Youngho’s that are a deep, earthy green that mimics bark in the wrong light. His cheeks are always rosy, just like his pink mouth that parts to sing a hymn Youngho doesn’t know.

The boy tugs at the collar of his pale pink top but as soon as his fingers leave the fabric does it slide back down his shoulder. He does not bother with it again, turning his attention to a rabbit that has hopped upon the covered basket made of sticks by his side. His grape colored eyes fall on Youngho and they widen in surprise.

Then, as beautiful as the sun breaks over the horizon in the morning, a warm smile spreads across his face.

“Lost again, Unseelie?” The boy chuckles, not unkindly, when Youngho walks close enough for him to be heard.

Poorly hiding his own smile, Youngho picks off another berry to eat and shrugs. “And what of you? Sitting out here as if waiting for me to get lost.”

“You know I live on this river and yet you flatter yourself like that.” Another laugh and a shake of his head. “I have to go nowhere to wait, but you travel to get ‘lost’ and ‘accidentally’ stumble across me.”

Youngho _did_ find himself lost the first time he ran from the Red Kingdom, less familiar with the lands that lead closer to the warm, Seelie territory than those that would take him into the wintry kingdoms of his own court. And accidentally stumble across Dongyoung he did, a little farther upstream where the river widens enough for one to bathe without fear of crossing the boundary.

It was a horribly awkward encounter, one that ended with a wave of water in Youngho’s face and a small army of defensive woodland animals in _both_ territories come to the rush of panic radiating off the Seelie boy. Dongyoung was quick to apologize for his offensive magic, but he also did not cower when Youngho sent him a glare behind the thick strands of hair plastered to his face. In fact, he had all but told Youngho that if he had the sense to not intrude on his bath, then he wouldn’t be wet but _‘really, that was rash of me, so I feel guilty nonetheless_ ‘.

When Youngho returned to the Red Kingdom later that day, after getting to know the strange Seelie boy living so far out from the nearest Seelie kingdom, he realized Dongyoung didn’t really apologize at all.

The next time he snuck out past the gates, it was with the intention of getting a proper apology from the Seelie. Nearly four months and a handful of meetings later, he has yet to receive it.

“So, you admit you were waiting?” Youngho presses, raising an eyebrow along with a corner of his mouth.

Dongyoung rolls his eyes and shakes his head. He waves a palm face down over the grass beside him, his fairy dust twinkling like falling stars, and a patch of clover sprouts from the grass. Gently lifting the rabbit off his basket, he places it near the patch to eat. As it begins to nibble, he peels off the square of green cloth covering his basket.

“Yes, my dear Youngho. I have been praying to Gaia each night for the moons to pass faster so you can refuse to come to me and only look across the river,” he says, words drawn out with sarcasm, as he takes out a plate of cut apple with a fluffy cloud of cream in the center and sets it in his lap.

It might be the tart on Youngho’s tongue, but his mouth waters. Distracted by the cream that looks much sweeter than anything made by an Unseelie, it takes a moment for Dongyoung’s words to register. He frowns.

“It is not that I don’t want to. I— “

“Am scared?”

Youngho bristles, frown deepening. Dongyoung swipes a finger through the ball of whipped cream and sucks it into his mouth, humming happily.

It’s a provocation, but one Dongyoung can only make because he doesn’t know that Youngho is—

“The Prince of the Unseelie Court and he can’t even cross a boundary.” Tutting disapprovingly, Dongyoung picks up a slice of apple and brings it up to his mouth to nibble.

He looks similar to the rabbit by his side, but Youngho cannot even joke about that, stuck on what Dongyoung has just called him.

“H-How do you know that?”

Dongyoung blinks at him, amusement clear in his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I know?”

Youngho splutters, unable to follow the conversation. “Where could you have learned?”

He never told Dongyoung, and just as most common Unseelies don’t immediately recognize the Seelie royal family, he expected the same of Dongyoung who said he hardly ever visits his home kingdom.

Giggling, Dongyoung makes a fruitless attempt to fix his shirt again. “Oh, dear, we will get nowhere going back and forth with questions.” He pats the space on the riverbank beside him. “Trust me and come here. It won’t hurt you.”

“Why don’t you come here then?”

“Because it’s foolish enough that I trust you as much as I do. I know that we Seelies have no interest in harm, but I cannot bring myself to trust your Court just because I like you.”

Youngho only hears one thing. “You like me?”

“Like I do any other cute, lost thing in these woods.” He smiles, mischief written in his toothy grin, but behind that is something softer.

Youngho almost thinks he’s been caught in an enchantment, the way Dongyoung’s eyes gaze upon him gently lidded, but he feels none of the pressure of magic despite the way his heart tugs.

“I didn’t make lunch for you to let it go to waste.” Dongyoung sighs, exasperated. “And I’m sure you do not make this trek just to watch me fondly from across the river before returning home.”

“I am _not_ fond of you. I simply think it is interesting that you live so distant from your kingdoms.”

Taking the plate out of the lap, Dongyoung rolls to his feet. The bracelet of twine Youngho twisted two moons ago and ‘dropped’ into this very river rests above his ankle.

Youngho’s nerves set alight, a distinct urge to run back to the Red Kingdom taking over him. There’s a voice telling him that he isn’t afraid of crossing the river as much as he’s afraid of Dongyoung himself — of the way his flushed, perpetually fairy-dusted cheeks look like pink diamond; of the way his eyes turn Youngho to stone when they linger too long; of the way his smile is more beautiful than any flower, any moon, and any star; of having to acknowledge that he, the future King of the Unseelie Court is undoubtedly smitten by a fae who should be his complete opposite.

“How about I meet you halfway?” Dongyoung says as he dips a foot into the water.

For the first time in his life, Youngho feels weak. The sprig of berries falls from his loose grasp although he registers nothing but the shortness of his breath and the thudding of his heart. His legs move before he can make up his mind and soon he’s feeling the pebbled bottom of the river under the soles of his feet. The water is freezing and makes the ends of his pants stick heavily to his legs.

Every dragging step closer to the Seelie boy makes Youngho’s wings flutter, like he’ll take off. But he doesn’t; he matches Dongyoung step for step until they’re standing knee to knee in front of each other.

And he should have expected it, but he’s taken by surprise when Dongyoung curls his hands around his shoulders and yanks him forward into Seelie territory.

Dongyoung is blinding up close; Youngho wonders if it’s because of the light magic or if it’s just _Dongyoung_.

“See,” Dongyoung giggles, “there’s no horrible trap.”

Youngho looks around, but there’s really nothing. No sign of the Seelie army ready to jump out of the trees in an ambush, no itch of magic in the air to indicate a hidden defense charm…nothing but a notable change in the temperature of the water.

“I don’t know,” he mumbles as he glances back down at Dongyoung. “I’m feeling a little trapped right now.”

Dongyoung’s grin widens. “Good.” His opalescent wings flutter gently, lifting him out of the water just enough so they can be at eye level. He leans in and presses his mouth to Youngho’s in a small kiss that the Unseelie prince doesn’t even feel until it’s over. “Because until sunset, I don’t plan on letting you go.”

**Author's Note:**

> honestly now that i'm fixing the spacing and semi rereading, idk why i made johnny a prince lol guess i needed that extra cliche
> 
> [main twt](https://twitter.com/unflorescent) | [nct au twt](https://twitter.com/tzannii) | [au twt cc](https://curiouscat.me/tzanni)


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